Biophilic Design and Mental Health in Cities: Recent Evidence (2025)

Living in a city brings its share of constraints: density, noise, pollution, accelerated pace. These factors weigh on the morale of residents and foster stress, anxiety, or disorders linked to isolation.Faced with this reality, one idea is gaining momentum: what if nature, integrated into our urban daily life, was part of the solution?

This is precisely the ambition of biophilic design: reintroducing the living (street trees, natural light, urban meadows, or even vegetated interiors) into the heart of built spaces. Long seen as an aesthetic approach, it is now studied for its measurable effects on mental health. And the results published in 2025 bring solid evidence.

When street trees become a public health tool

A meta-analysis of 78 studies, gathering nearly 5,900 participants, concludes that a simple daily exposure of 15 minutes to nature is enough to reduce stress and anxiety, while improving mood and concentration (Stanford & Leiden, 2025). This research shows that even a short duration, integrated into the urban routine, can produce effects comparable to heavier therapeutic interventions. The originality of this meta-analysis also lies in the diversity of the contexts studied: urban parks, gardens, street trees, or small green spaces, all demonstrated a beneficial role.

This result has major significance: even in a dense urban environment, a few street trees or a small park can play a protective role for mental health.

In New York, authorities rely on these conclusions to strengthen their urban strategy: the goal is to further expand accessibility to green spaces by 2035, in order to maximize the documented benefits on the mental health of residents, according to the New York Post (2025). In practice, this means planning investments in the maintenance and creation of nearby green spaces. The fact that more than 84% of residents already live less than ten minutes from a park illustrates the progress made, but the city aims even higher to meet health and social expectations.

Urban flower meadows: an antidote to stress

Beyond large parks, another strategy is attracting attention: urban flower meadows.A study published in Scientific Reports in 2025 shows that these colorful vegetated spaces reduce both the psychological and physiological symptoms of stress. The researchers notably highlight a measurable decrease in blood pressure and skin conductance, two physiological indicators linked to stress. This result is important because it directly connects the visual and sensory experience of urban biodiversity to biological markers of health.

These meadows do not require major works, but transform unused land into oases of biodiversity. They fit into a logic of prevention: it is not only about treating afterwards, but about reducing the future appearance of disorders linked to anxiety or isolation. Their effectiveness makes them a simple, low-cost, and beneficial strategy, accessible to all cities, including those where space is limited.

Greenery visible in daily life: more effective than distant parks

A London team took things a step further by analyzing 7.45 billion medical prescriptions crossed with Google Street View images.

This analysis shows that greenery visible in the streets ("on-road greenery") is more strongly linked to better health than isolated and distant green spaces (arXiv, 2025). The researchers distinguish here two forms of nature: that which one encounters daily, when walking in one’s neighborhood, and that which requires an intentional effort, such as going to a large park.

• In areas where daily vegetative cover exceeds the median, prescriptions against hypertension decrease by 3.68%.

• At the scale of London, this reduction could represent an annual saving of several million pounds sterling.

In other words, what matters is not only the presence of a large park far away, but above all the greenery one comes across every day when leaving home or going to work. This conclusion echoes that of other studies: the regularity and proximity of contact with vegetation matter as much, if not more, than the size of green spaces.

Beyond these scientific results, some concrete projects already show how biophilia is being integrated into cities. In Singapore, “sky gardens” built high up create breathing spaces at the heart of skyscrapers. In Paris, several schools, such as the Jean Dolent primary school, are experimenting with green roofs to improve children’s well-being. More original still, some European cities are developing urban Zen gardens in dense neighborhoods: these minimalist spaces, inspired by Japanese tradition, combine vegetation, stones, and water to create places of calm and meditation. They offer a sensory pause in the city flow and remind us that biophilia can take many forms, from classical parks to more intimate spaces. These developments are therefore not seen as a luxury, but as a necessary response to daily well-being needs and a forward-looking strategy for more human cities.

Implications for urban planning and architecture

Taken together, these results outline a clear roadmap for urban development:

• Multiply micro-contacts with nature: plant trees along streets, create pocket parks, make vegetation visible everywhere.

• Value "passive" biophilia: even a daily glance at a tree or a green façade has measurable effects.

• Integrate urban flower meadows: an aesthetic, ecological, and beneficial solution for mental health.

• Design biophilic interiors: natural light, indoor vegetation, organic materials, all elements that help regulate stress (Frontiers, 2025).

These actions do not all require colossal investments: some simply involve a shift in perspective on how we design our streets, neighborhoods, and buildings. The six sources mobilized converge towards a common message: even modest interventions, if well thought out, produce measurable benefits.

Conclusion

In 2025, research clearly confirms that nature plays a direct role in mental health in cities. Just a few minutes of daily exposure are already enough to improve mood and reduce anxiety. Flower meadows, by transforming simple urban plots into living spaces, provide an accessible response to prevent stress. Even the greenery one comes across at the corner of a street has an impact on public health, up to influencing medical prescriptions.

Biophilic design thus no longer appears as an aesthetic trend, but as a real tool for prevention. Because it is simple to implement, low-cost, and universal, it opens a concrete path to make urban life more balanced, more resilient, and more human. A little green every day is enough to give cities, and their residents, room to breathe again.

Sources 

[1]  Natural Capital Project. (2025). For city dwellers, even 15 minutes in nature can improve mental health. Stanford University.

[2] Stanford University & Universiteit Leiden. (2025, July). Fifteen minutes in nature improve mental health for city dwellers. Nature Cities. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

[3] New York Post. (2025, August 3). City residents should spend 15 minutes in nature for better mental health, new study says.

[4] Simonienko, A., et al. (2025). Urban flower meadows reduce psychological and physiological stress: Evidence from experimental interventions. Scientific Reports. Nature Publishing Group.

[5] Mucha, J., et al. (2025). Virtual green walks reduce pain perception and improve emotional well-being compared to urban simulations. Nature.

[6] Al Sayyed, A., et al. (2025). Biophilic residential interiors and stress recovery: Evidence from immersive virtual environments. Frontiers in Virtual Reality.

[7] Global Wellness Institute. (2025). Biophilic design and brain plasticity: Exploring the therapeutic potential of nature exposure. Global Wellness Institute.

[8] Vitamin N Research Team. (2025, August). Vitamin N: Benefits of different forms of public greenery for urban health. arXiv preprint. 

Would you like to learn more about Biofilic Designs ? Feel free to check out our article   'Biophilic Design: Integrating Nature into our spaces for a Sustainable Future' to explore the topic further.